SUBJECT:

PURPOSE:

Since modern homelessness began in the late 1970s, the City of New York has always maintained an intake center for homeless men in Manhattan - first on East 3rd Street and the Bowery, and since 1984, at the Bellevue men's shelter on East 30th Street and First Avenue. Manhattan has the highest concentration of street homelessness of the five boroughs, particularly in the midtown business district.

The vast majority of street homeless New Yorkers are single men. For the past decade, the men's intake center at the Bellevue shelter has been the only intake point for the municipal shelter system - it is, literally, the "front door" to the shelter system for homeless single men seeking shelter. Each year, thousands of homeless men seek shelter at the Bellevue intake center, in large part because it is centrally-located and accessible. City data confirm that nearly 60 percent of street homeless people in New York City sleep in Manhattan. Bellevue, the largest shelter in Manhattan, has 850 beds with more than 130 beds designated for homeless men living with special needs (including mental illness or tuberculosis). Most of the residents are older men, and currently, approximately 600 men reside in the shelter each night.

In 2007, more than 18,000 different homeless single men sought shelter, including 7,164 homeless single men who were new to the shelter system. Currently, nearly 7,000 homeless single adults sleep each night in the municipal shelter system, including more than 5,000 homeless single men. According to Mayor Bloomberg's 2004 homeless plan, approximately one of every three homeless single adults in municipal shelters was street homeless immediately before seeking shelter.

On April 25, 2008, the Bloomberg administration announced that it plans to move the men's intake center to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory, a 350-bed shelter located in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, as soon as September of this year. The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) must review and approve the site relocation.

Service providers who work with the homeless fear the City's plan will significantly diminish access to emergency shelter for homeless men throughout New York City, and will result in worsening street homelessness in Manhattan and other boroughs. Research shows that emergency shelter and services must be easily accessible to the street homeless, particularly on cold winter nights when obtaining shelter can be a matter of life and death. There is also concern that many homeless men will avoid the armory and sleep on the streets, even on cold winter nights.

The Manhattan men's homeless intake center has the support of the local community board and is currently located where most street homelessness is concentrated. The New York City Department of Homeless Services' (DHS) 2008 HOPE survey of street homelessness estimated that 58 percent of homeless people found on the streets were located in Manhattan. In contrast, the same survey estimated that the street homeless found in Brooklyn made up 16 percent of all street homeless people.

The proposal has caused much concern not only about the men's homeless intake center, but also about the fate of the Adult Family Intake Center - the sole intake facility for homeless couples and other homeless families without minor children - which is also located at the Bellevue facility. It is critical that the Legislature examine the impact of relocating the City's only men's homeless intake center from Manhattan to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. This hearing will provide state and city agencies as well as homeless service providers and other experts the opportunity to address the impact of the facility transfer on homeless men.

Please see below for a list of subjects to which witnesses may direct their testimony. Persons wishing to present pertinent testimony to the Committee at the above hearing should complete and return the enclosed reply form as soon as possible. It is important that the reply form be fully completed and returned so that persons may be notified in the event of emergency postponement or cancellation.

Oral testimony will be limited to 10 minutes. In preparing the order of witnesses, the Committee will attempt to accommodate individual requests to speak at particular times in view of special circumstances. These requests should be made on the attached reply form or communicated to Committee staff as early as possible. In the absence of a request, witnesses will be scheduled in the order in which reply forms are postmarked.

Ten copies of any prepared testimony should be submitted at the hearing registration desk. The Committee would appreciate advance receipt of prepared statements.

In order to further publicize these hearings, please inform interested parties and organizations of the Committee's interest in hearing testimony from all sources.

In order to meet the needs of those who may have a disability, the Assembly, in accordance with its policy of non-discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made its facilities and services available to all individuals with disabilities. For individuals with disabilities, accommodations will be provided, upon reasonable request, to afford such individuals access and admission to Assembly facilities and activities.

SELECTED ISSUES TO WHICH WITNESSES MAY DIRECT THEIR TESTIMONY:

1. What will happen to the current residents of the Bellevue shelter if the intake center is relocated to Brooklyn?

2. The Bellevue shelter is also the site of the Adult Family Intake Center. What plans does the City have for re-locating this intake facility?

3. Do you support the City of New York's proposal to move the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory in Brooklyn? Why or why not?

4. Do you believe that moving the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan to Brooklyn will increase or reduce the number of homeless men sleeping on the streets, in subways, or in other public spaces in New York City?

5. Will moving the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan to Brooklyn make it harder for homeless men to obtain emergency shelter in the municipal shelter system? Will it make it harder for homeless men sleeping on the streets, in subways, or in other public spaces to obtain shelter?

6. Will moving the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan to Brooklyn make it harder for service providers to convince homeless men to enter the municipal shelter system?

7. Given that the majority of street homeless men are living with mental illness or other disabilities, will moving the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan to Brooklyn make it harder for homeless men with these conditions to obtain emergency shelter?

8. What is the reputation of the Bedford-Atlantic Armory shelter, and how will this influence whether or not homeless men will seek shelter if the intake center is moved there?

9. How should the City of New York provide shelter intake services for homeless men? Should there be a single intake center (the current model), or should there be multiple intake sites in each borough (as proposed in Mayor Bloomberg's 2004 homeless plan, "Uniting for Solutions Beyond Shelter")?

10. What will be the impact on the surrounding community of moving the homeless men's intake center to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory?

11. Given current resource limitations, are street outreach services and "safe haven" shelters an adequate substitute for moving the homeless men's intake center from Manhattan to Brooklyn?

PUBLIC HEARING REPLY FORM

Persons wishing to present testimony at the public hearing on The Relocation of the Men's Homeless Intake Center from Manhattan to Brooklyn, New York, are requested to complete this reply form as soon as possible and mail it to:

Elaine Fernandez
Legislative Analyst
Assembly Committee on Social Services
Room 522 - Capitol
Albany, New York 12248
Email: fernane@assembly.state.ny.us
Phone: (518) 455-4371
Fax: (518) 455-4693

I will address my remarks to the following subjects:

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